No less an authority on language than the late William Safire, in his Safire's Political Dictionary, devoted an entry to the oft-used phrase describing it as "a passive-evasive way of acknowledging error while distancing the speaker from responsibility for it."

Political analyst Bill Schneider declared it to be the "past exonerative" of choice for the political class.

Seeing it used again set us off on a search of the phrase's origin and history.

President Clinton, a Democrat, proved in 1998 that Republicans aren't the only ones who know a good non-apology apology when they hear one. Asked about a fundraising scandal, he responded that "mistakes were made here by people who did it either deliberately or inadvertently."

Republicans picked the ball up again during George W. Bush's administration. As Safire wrote, Bush added a "skillful refinement ... the subordinate-clause admission or error, compounding passivity and present-perfection with a conditional 'whatever.' " Speaking of the Iraq war, Bush said in 2006 that "whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone."

"The artful dodge of the impersonal apology has roots. President Ulysses S. Grant, fondly remembered by grammarians for his activist self-description, 'I am a verb,' appended a note to his final annual report to Congress on December 5, 1876, acknowledging the scandals that had plagued his two terms in office with the words, 'Mistakes have been made, as all can see and I admit.' "

If you know of earlier references, please tell us. And if there are any errors in this post ... well, you know what we'll say.